Characterisation of the steady state tube furnace (ISO TS 19700) for fire toxicity assessment

The steady state tube furnace (Purser furnace, ISO TS 19700) has been developed specifically to replicate the generation of toxic products from real fires under different fire conditions on a bench-scale. Steady state burning is achieved by driving the sample into a furnace of increasing heat flux at a fixed rate and recording the product yields over a steady state period in the middle of the run. The furnace, sample, and effluent dilution chamber temperature profiles are presented to characterise the conditions in the apparatus. The distribution of smoke in the mixing chamber has been investigated to demonstrate the efficiency of mixing in the effluent dilution chamber. The heat flux applied to the sample at various points through the furnace has been measured, showing that conditions vary from those typical of pre-flaming to fully developed fires. An initial investigation of the repeatability and interlaboratory reproducibility has been undertaken, showing acceptable low levels of uncertainty in the toxic product yields.     

Qsar Models for Predicting the Acute Toxicity of Selected Organic Chemicals with Diverse Structures to Aquatic Non-Vertebrates and Humans

Abstract

The linear and non-linear relationships of acute toxicity (as determined on five aquatic non-vertebrates and humans) to molecular structure have been investigated on 38 structurally-diverse chemicals. The compounds selected are the organic chemicals from the 50 priority chemicals prescribed by the Multicentre Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity (MEIC) programme. The models used for the evaluations are the best combination of physico-chemical properties that could be obtained so far for each organism, using the partial least squares projection to latent structures (PLS) regression method and backpropagated neural networks (BPN). Non-linear models, whether derived from PLS regression or backpropagated neural networks, appear to be better than linear models for describing the relationship between acute toxicity and molecular structure. BPN models, in turn, outperform non-linear models obtained from PLS regression. The predictive power of BPN models for the crustacean test species are better than the model for humans (based on human lethal concentration). The physico-chemical properties found to be important to predict both human acute toxicity and the toxicity to aquatic non-vertebrates are the n?octanol water partition coefficient (Pow) and heat of formation (HF). Aside from the two former properties, the contribution of parameters that reflect size and electronic properties of the molecule to the model is also high, but the type of physico-chemical properties differs from one model to another. In all of the best BPN models, some of the principal component analysis (PCA) scores of the ¹³C-NMR spectrum, with electron withdrawing/accepting capacity (LUMO, HOMO and IP) are molecular size/volume (VDW or MS1) parameters are relevant. The chemical deviating from the QSAR models include non-pesticides as well as some of the pesticides tested. The latter type of chemical fits in a number of the QSAR models. Outliers for one species may be different from those of other test organisms.     

硫脲修饰ZnSe:Cu量子点的水相合成及荧光特性

以3-巯基丙酸为稳定剂在水相中合成了Cu掺杂的ZnSe量子点(QDs), 并利用硫脲(CH₄N₂S)对其进行表面修饰, 制备出核壳结构的ZnSe:Cu/ZnS 量子点. 制得的量子点呈闪锌矿结构, 尺寸约为5 nm, 有较好的分散性, 其荧光发射峰在460 nm左右. 经CH₄N₂S修饰后, 量子点表面形成了宽禁带的ZnS包覆层, 将电子和空穴限域在了ZnSe:Cu 核内, 减少了表面发生非辐射复合的载流子, 显著提高了量子点的荧光强度. 与Na₂S、硫代乙酰胺(TAA)等常用硫源相比, 以CH₄N₂S为硫源制得的ZnSe:Cu/ZnS 量子点壳层厚度可控, 表面钝化效果更好, 显示出更佳的荧光效率和稳定性. ZnSe:Cu/ZnS 量子点经过紫外线照射后消除了表面的悬空键, 进一步提高了其量子产率, 最终获到了具有较好荧光性质的ZnSe:Cu/ZnS量子点.     

Characterization of lead and lead leaching properties of lead glazed ceramics from the Solis Valley, Mexico, using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFT)

Ingestion of relatively small amounts of lead is now recognized to cause significant neurological and cognitive effects in humans. Large quantities may be fatal, yet lead poisoning, especially of children, is still a major public health concern in many parts of the world. In rural Mexican communities lead oxide (PbO) is added to ceramic glaze as a fluxing agent, lowering starting firing temperatures to 500 °C. The purpose of this study is to characterize the lead chemical forms in ceramic glazes from the Solis Valley, Mexico, to investigate lead leaching properties of these ceramics, and to demonstrate the applicability of lead isotope signatures as a means of tracing lead source origins. Ceramics were collected from the rural village of Santa Maria de Canchesda, State of Mexico, Mexico. Dried liquid glazes, post-fired glaze material, and pure PbO were analyzed by diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFT). Results from DRIFT analysis indicate that PbO (1429 cm⁻¹ band) is the active form of lead found in liquid glazes and ceramics. Some shifting of 1429 cm⁻¹ PbO peak to lower wavenumbers occurs in post-fired ceramics, and this may be due to the formation of lead bisilicate during firing. Ceramics samples were leached in 0.02 M citric acid solution for 1 min, and leached lead concentrations were measured using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Lead concentrations in these leachates varied from 0.4-80.4 μg ml⁻¹, while the control pottery from the US leached only 0.1 μg ml⁻¹ lead. Elemental distributions on glaze surfaces were identified by laser ablation (LA)-ICP-MS. Nitric acid extracts of soils, teeth, and ceramic glazes were analyzed for lead isotope ratios (²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb vs. ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁶Pb) using ICP-MS. Similarities of tooth and ceramic lead isotope ratios indicate that ceramics may be a substantial source of body lead burden in the Solis Valley. This study demonstrates the applicability of lead isotope ratios for lead source identification, and it identifies potential health risks from ceramic use induced lead toxicity within the Solis Valley.     

蓝藻水华衍生的微囊藻毒素污染及其对水生生物的生态毒理学研究

富营养化导致的蓝藻水华频发,引发各种衍生物污染,严重时造成重大生态灾害事件,甚至危及人类健康。其中微囊藻毒素以其毒性大、分布广和结构稳定的特点,成为水环境中常见的潜在危害物质,它主要由微囊藻产生,是一类具有多种异构体的环状七肽物质。本文根据微囊藻毒素污染现状及其水生生态毒理学研究的最新研究进展,介绍了微囊藻毒素的理化性质及其产生、迁移和转化,在我国天然水体、水库源水和饮用水中的污染现状以及部分水产品中的微囊藻毒素累积情况,较全面地评述了微囊藻毒素的分子致毒机理以及对水生生态系统的重要组成成分--常见水生植物和鱼类的生态毒理学效应,并提出了该领域未来研究的主要方向。     

Qualitative and quantitative determination of polyacetylenes in different Bupleurum species by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector and mass spectrometry

Polyacetylenes are main toxic ingredients in Bupleurum longiradiatum, a poisonous plant that has ever been misused as substitutes for Chaihu (Bupleuri Radix). For the first time, a high-performance liquid chromatography method coupled with diode array detector and mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-MS) was developed for qualitative and quantitative analysis of nine polyacetylenes in Bupleurum species. All references, including two new polyacetylenes, were isolated from B. longiradiatum and purified using a semi-preparation HPLC chromatography. The analysis was performed on a TSKgel ODS-100V C18 column (3 μm, 150 mm x 4.6 mm i.d.) using a gradient system of acetonitrile and water, with diode array detection (254 nm). The method was validated for linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection and quantification. A total of 27 Bupleurum samples were examined with this method, which showed a great variety in the distribution and contents of the polyacetylenes. It was found that polyacetylenes (1-8) were the main ingredients in B. longiradiatum, while a few kinds of polyacetylenes (5-8) were also identified in B. smithii, B. smithii var. parvifolium, B. bicaule and B. angustissimum. However, no polyacetylenes (1-9) were detected in the authentic Chaihu samples and the other Bupleurum species. The results indicated that the toxic B. longiradiatum could readily be distinguished from other medicinal Bupleurum species based on the polyacetylene profiles, and the guidelines and quality control of polyacetylenes for Chaihu are useful. The acute toxicity of the ethanol extract of B. longiradiatum and its fractions was also investigated.     

Design of (quinolin-4-ylthio)carboxylic acids as new Escherichia coli DNA gyrase B inhibitors: machine learning studies,molecular docking,synthesis and biological testing

Spread of multidrug‐resistant Escherichia coli clinical isolates is a main problem in the treatment of infectious diseases. Therefore, the modern scientific approaches in decision this problem require not only a prevention strategy, but also the development of new effective inhibitory compounds with selective molecular mechanism of action and low toxicity. The goal of this work is to identify more potent molecules active against E. coli strains by using machine learning, docking studies, synthesis and biological evaluation. A set of predictive QSAR models was built with two publicly available structurally diverse data sets, including recent data deposited in PubChem. The predictive ability of these models tested by a 5-fold cross-validation, resulted in balanced accuracies (BA) of 59–98% for the binary classifiers. Test sets validation showed that the models could be instrumental in predicting the antimicrobial activity with an accuracy (with BA = 60–99 %) within the applicability domain. The models were applied to screen a virtual chemical library, which was designed to have activity against resistant E. coli strains. The eight most promising compounds were identified, synthesized and tested. All of them showed the different levels of anti-E. coli activity and acute toxicity. The docking results have shown that all studied compounds are potential DNA gyrase inhibitors through the estimated interactions with amino acid residues and magnesium ion in the enzyme active center The synthesized compounds could be used as an interesting starting point for further development of drugs with low toxicity and selective molecular action mechanism against resistant E. coli strains. The developed QSAR models are freely available online at OCHEM http://ochem.eu/article/112525 and can be used to virtual screening of potential compounds with anti-E. coli activity.     

柱后加碱脉冲积分安培检测-离子色谱法测定水产品中十种生物胺

建立了利用淋洗液自动发生梯度淋洗的离子交换色谱法同时测定水产品中酪胺、5-羟色胺、腐胺、尸胺、组胺、庚二胺、苯乙胺、亚精胺、精胺、色胺等10种生物胺的方法。样品经处理后用Ionpac CS17分离柱和Ionpac CG17型保护柱分离,以EG40自动淋洗液发生器生成的5.0～55 mmol/L的MSA为淋洗液梯度洗脱,脉冲积分安培检测器检测。对梯度进行优化,10种生物胺都能基线分离,并且浓度和峰面积在一定范围内呈良好的线性关系。检出限在0.04 mg/kg以下,回收率在91.2%～102.5%之间,样品的RSD(n=6)小于5%。方法可用于水产品的检测。